What’s In An Algorithm? Geek Week at Archer

Last week, Archer students met during the day to engage in a variety of festivities, also known as Geek Week. Senior leaders Clio Koller ’14, Brooklin Cohen ’14, and Leila Taleghani ’14 organized the event where students participated in forensics activities as they tried to discover the culprit behind the missing panther suit.

In typical Geek Week fashion, different festivities took place throughout the week. On Tuesday, students enjoyed ice cream in the court yard. Because of some difficulties, the original plan for liquid nitrogen didn’t work out. However, many students stood in a short line and waited for ice cream in a cup.

Star Eco Station, a non-profit wildlife rescue center, presented a baby alligator, a boa constrictor, and other organisms like a relative of the komodo dragon on Wednesday. Students sat in the Dining Hall and listened to description of a chinchilla as the staff member carried around the boa constrictor for students to touch.

“It was fascinating,” Noemi Holzcer ’15 says about the live presentation.

On Thursday each grade was divided into teams of four to participate in the lively Egg Drop Contest. The victories grades of the Egg Drop Contest were awarded spirit points. What is an Egg Drop Contest? According to the leaders, the goal of the game is to use only the given materials to build a contraption that will prevent the egg from cracking. The team whose egg cracks the least was awarded spirit points, as well as the team whose egg stays in the air the longest.

On the last day of the week both teachers and students participated in a highly competitive Jeopardy game in the Rose Room. Groups of eight students—consisting of four upper schoolers and four middle-schoolers—played in the competition. In celebration, students also received trademark “Archer Geek Week 2014 pencils.”

Middle schoolers, who signed up at Ms. Stone’s desk, joined the upper schoolers in an enthusiastic clamor. A senior captain led each team. The questions concerned math, science, and science fiction, focusing on content that students have learned in the respective classes. Until the end of the Jeopardy game, the prizes for the winners remained unknown.

With students witnessing the presentation of a baby alligator and participating in an ambitious Jeopardy war, the event was a success. Senior leader Koller says that “Geek Week [is] Archer’s celebration of all things nerd.”

Madison Richardson is a junior who writes mainly in the Voices section of the Oracle staff. It is her first year writing for the Oracle. When she is not writing for the Oracle, she is doing her homework.